Shadows of the Past
by MissFiyerabaMeponineSherlock
Summary: Modern day AU, Eponine is a patient in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Marius meets her one day after visiting his sick grandfather and finds himself going to visit her almost every day afterward. Could their friendship uncover a ten year old murder and the true reason why Eponine is in the psychiatric ward?


**Hey y'all! So this is a random idea that I came up with one day and I decided to write it, so yeah.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Les Mis or the characters**

Marius Pontmercy was 17 years old and in his penultimate year of high school. He lived on his own, in an apartment that he payed for with the money he earned from his part time job at a bookstore. He had been raised by his grandfather, Monsieur Gillenormand, whom he had never gotten along with so he had moved out. That's not to say that he didn't care about his grandfather, of course he did. He had, after all, been the one to raise him, to take care of him when his parents had died. He just didn't agree with his grandfather on, well, anything.

He did extremely well in school and he had a very strong passion for law. He had many friends, and they formed the society of Les Amis de l'ABC. They were a group of students who strived for a better France, who tried their best to help those who could not help themselves. He was a very generous person, and though he did not have much money, he still gave what he could to the poor.

"Hey Marius!" Courfeyrac, a young ladies' man with curly brown hair and warm brown eyes, called to him as he caught sight of him walking down the street. Marius stopped walking and turned. He smiled upon seeing Courfeyrac, who was one of his closer friends. Courfeyrac ran over to him. "Are you coming to Le Musain tonight? Enjolras has called a meeting."

"Again?"

"Well," Courfeyrac cleared his throat and then continued on in a fake deep voice, "'France still isn't free and her people are still oppressed, Citizen.'" It was a bad impression of Enjolras, the leader of Les Amis de l'ABC. Marius laughed quietly. "So are you–?" Courfeyrac was cut off by the sudden ringing of Marius' cell phone. Marius looked at him apologetically before answering it.

"Hello?" he spoke into his phone. "... He... He what? ... Are you sure? ... I'll be there soon." he hung up and put his phone in his pocket. "My grandfather is in the hospital." he said quietly. Courfeyrac's eyes widened,

"Is he going to be okay?"

"He's very sick. He's been asking for me, I have to go to him."

"I understand. I'll tell Enjolras that you won't be coming to the meeting."

"Thanks, Courf." Marius said sincerely before hailing a taxi and heading to the hospital.

Marius all but ran into his grandfather's hospital room, where Gillenormand lay in a hospital bed and where Nicolette, the housekeeper, sat in the corner of the room. It was she who had called Marius. The old man's eyes immediately met Marius' and, upon seeing that it was him, filled with happiness. Marius rushed to his side. He truly did care about his grandfather, the man that raised him.

"Father," Marius said, knowing that that was what the old man preferred to be called, "I came as soon as I heard."

"Marius, my boy, I'm glad you came. At first, I did not think that you would. But now you are here and that is good."

"Do they know what you suffer from?"

"They believe it's pneumonia, but they are still waiting for the test results." Gillenormand replied. Marius knew that pneumonia could be deadly, especially to someone as old as Gillenormand.

"And... and what are your chances of surviving? How bad is it?" he asked, finding it hard to swallow.

"I'm sure I'll be fine." Gillenormand said, "It is in its early stages, after all." Marius noticed that he didn't answer his question.

Marius stayed with him until late in the night. Once he had fallen asleep, Marius decided it would be best to return home and visit again the next day. He walked through the halls of the hospital. It was quiet now, as most of the patients were asleep. As he rounded a corner, he collided with someone, causing them both to fall to the ground. Marius hastily scrambled to his feet and then offered his hand out to the young girl whom he had knocked over. She looked to be about his age. She either ignored or did not notice his hand and got up by herself. Marius immediately noticed that she was wearing a long, white hospital gown, the type seen on long-term patients. She had dark brown hair that hung in loose curls and large, soft brown eyes framed with thick black lashes. Her skin was rather pale and she had dark bags under her eyes. She was quite thin, dangerously so. Marius smiled politely at her,

"So sorry, Mademoiselle. I was not watching where I was going." he said.

"That's..." she seemed to zone out for a moment before finishing her sentence, "... okay, Monsieur..." She smiled slightly, though it was more the ghost of a smile. "Haven't seen you here before," she said, her voice soft and almost dreamy, "are you visiting someone?" Marius nodded,

"My grandfather." he replied. "He's very sick."

"I'm sorry to hear... that..." she said.

"Are..." Marius hesitated a moment, "Are you here often?" he asked her, thinking of her early comment. She nodded.

"I live here."

"You live here?"

"Oh yes, for a very... very long time..." a far away look came into her eyes, which soon filled with fear and despair. She put her head in her hands and, shaking her head slowly, she muttered, "No... no... no... not now... no..." over and over again. Marius wasn't sure of what was happening, nor of what to do. He tentatively and rather awkwardly placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her.

"Uh, it's okay, er, you're safe." he said softly.

"Eponine! There you are!" came a voice from behind Marius. He turned and saw a nurse walking towards them. The nurse saw the state that Eponine was in and hurried over to her. "There, there, dear. You're alright." she said, then, looking at Marius, "What happened?"

"I don't know. She must have remembered something and, well..." he looked at Eponine, who was still muttering to herself.

"I'd best get her back to her room."

"She mentioned that she lives here."

"Well, technically she's a patient. In the psychiatic ward. She's been here for years. Her father never visits, but he pays to keep her here." the nurse said. She started to lead Eponine away.

"Will she be okay?" Marius called after her. The nurse stopped, keeping an arm wrapped around Eponine.

"That's hard to say. She hardly sleeps, she doesn't eat, and she keeps losing weight. She's very sick, both physically and mentally. Her condition keeps worsening, the poor dear. We don't even know what's causing it. She won't talk to us." the nurse said. "And it seems that she has no one. Apart from her father, no one has any ties to Eponine Thenardier." And with that, she left with Eponine.

Marius couldn't help but wonder about this poor girl. She wouldn't leave his thoughts.

**Et voilà! Took me a while to write this, but I have finally finished chapter 1! Yay!**

**I now have a blog for my account. In it, I will talk about future story ideas, current stories that I'm working on, and you'll probably get some sneak-peeks. If you wish to follow me on tumblr, my tumblr name thing is missfiyerabameponinesherlock . tumblr . com**

**Also, please check out the new poll on my profile page. It's regarding one of my future stories, Behold the Night That Falls, which centres around the attack on Rue Plumet.**


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